Terence Rattigan’s The Deep Blue Sea, opens at the Lyttelton Theatre, London on 08 June following a week of previews from 01 June 2016.
Helen McCrory plays Hester Collyer in this production directed by Carrie Cracknell – a double-act that has already attracted plaudits: they gave us Medea in 2014 at the Olivier Theatre, also on the Southbank.
The scene is a flat in Ladbroke Grove, West London, the date 1952, where a veneer of post-war civility hides a brutal sense of loss and longing.
Hester Collyer’s failed suicide attempt is the result of a tempestuous affair with a former RAF pilot and the breakdown of her marriage to a High Court Judge and is a symptom of her loneliness and long-repressed passion.
Terence Rattigan was one of the country’s most influential playwrights and is still the only playwright who has had two straight plays run for over a 1000 performances in London’s Theatreland simultaneously.
Despite an extensive theatre cv, Helen McCrory will be better known for her roles in Skyfall, Hugo, Peaky Blinders, Penny Dreadful, Harry Potter and Anna Karenina.
Press night: Wednesday 8 June
The Deep Blue Sea is booking to 17 August 2016.
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